The present invention broadly relates to a device or apparatus for target detection and pertains more specifically to an optical proximity fuze for detonating a projectile or missile or the like at a desired or predeterminate distance from a target.
Generally speaking, the optical proximity fuze of the present invention is of the type comprising at least one optical transmitter or sender and at least one optical receiver or detector upon which the beam emitted by the at least one transmitter or sender and reflected at the target impinges. Upon reception of the reflected beam, the at least one optical receiver delivers a signal for detonating the projectile or missile or the like.
Such proximity fuzes are known, for example, from West German Published Pat. Application No. 3,429,943, published May 9, 1985, and West German Pat. No. 2,949,521, published October 21, 1982. The known proximity fuzes described therein comprise means for eliminating interfering or spurious effects due to stray light or noise. Apart from or in addition to such interfering effects or spurious signals caused by stray light or noise, especially sunlight, there are, however, still other disturbing or interfering or spurious effects which cannot be eliminated by the known means, for example, in the case of solid particles in the atmosphere or rain drops which reflect the emitted beam and simulate a target which is non-existent.